Luminous Landscape Forum

The Art of Photography => User Critiques => Topic started by: N80 on September 24, 2016, 08:54:50 am

Title: The Bus Station
Post by: N80 on September 24, 2016, 08:54:50 am
This is the Greyhound station in Clarksdale, Mississippi a small, economically depressed town in the heart of the delta. It is often considered the birth place of the blues. I lived there as a child.
Title: Re: The Bus Station
Post by: GrahamBy on September 24, 2016, 09:56:04 am
And this was the way out...
Title: Re: The Bus Station
Post by: N80 on September 24, 2016, 10:10:56 am
And this was the way out...

Yes. And the double irony is that on the door you can see that it was made into a tourist information center...which was also no longer in operation. Maybe I should title this one :No Way Out.
Title: Re: The Bus Station
Post by: RSL on September 24, 2016, 10:17:30 am
There's always a way out. Booze. Drugs. Swallowing your gun. . .
Title: Re: The Bus Station
Post by: N80 on September 24, 2016, 11:16:42 am
There's always a way out. Booze. Drugs. Swallowing your gun. . .

It also has a high murder rate per capita largely due to the booze and the drugs.

There is an interesting (recent) book about the general area around Clarksdale by a British author who buys an old house and moves in. It is called Dispatches from Pluto by Richard Grant. It gives a very even handed outsider's view of a region that is deeply complex and defies easy stereotypes.

The amount of extraordinary people who came from this region is legendary and hard to explain.

They also have world famous tamales.
Title: Re: The Bus Station
Post by: Rajan Parrikar on September 24, 2016, 11:59:29 am
It also has a high murder rate per capita largely due to the booze and the drugs.

There is an interesting (recent) book about the general area around Clarksdale by a British author who buys an old house and moves in. It is called Dispatches from Pluto by Richard Grant. It gives a very even handed outsider's view of a region that is deeply complex and defies easy stereotypes.

The amount of extraordinary people who came from this region is legendary and hard to explain.

They also have world famous tamales.

I have memories of the area, having spent 2 years in nearby Oxford.
Title: Re: The Bus Station
Post by: BobDavid on September 24, 2016, 01:30:12 pm
This tune came to mind: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ud2mvXZR470

I realize your photo was taken in Clarksdale.
Title: Re: The Bus Station
Post by: Chairman Bill on September 24, 2016, 02:41:40 pm
This one came to my mind  :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1GeoZQMXKKEHeritage Blues orchestra - Clarksdale Moan (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1GeoZQMXKKE)
Title: Re: The Bus Station
Post by: N80 on September 24, 2016, 05:57:12 pm
I have memories of the area, having spent 2 years in nearby Oxford.

We started our trip in Oxford. Coming down out of the hills from Oxford into the delta is like entering a different world. Well, not like entering a different world it is a different world. This was one of my favorite spots in Oxford. He is my literary hero.

Title: Re: The Bus Station
Post by: Rob C on September 25, 2016, 03:56:55 pm
Don't folks also leave some booze at the supposed resting place of Robert Johnson?

Hard times can produce great art, possibly because ease isn't really always all that conducive to staying power and determination; if you don't really have to do something...

Rob
Title: Re: The Bus Station
Post by: N80 on September 25, 2016, 05:58:59 pm
Don't folks also leave some booze at the supposed resting place of Robert Johnson?

Not sure. According to Wikipedia there are three grave sites for him. Historians believe he is probably buried in an unmarked grave in a potters field somewhere.

The tradition for Faulkner's grave is to spill some whiskey on it to share it with him. I was a bit disappointed to see the cheap bourbon mini bottles that were left when I was there but I did not bring anything to share with him myself so cannot complain.

When he died his star was in decline and his wife was relatively poor. Very few attended his funeral.

Quote
Hard times can produce great art, possibly because ease isn't really always all that conducive to staying power and determination; if you don't really have to do something...

Rob

Agreed.